How Did The Red River Affect The Mississippi River

Before the 15th century the red river and the Mississippi river were two different rivers that were basically parallel to each other. During the 15th century however, the Mississippi river began to turn to the west and before too long it created a loops which would later be called the Turnbull’s Bend. Because the Mississippi turned and made that large loop, the Mississippi river intercepted the red river which had become a tributary of the Mississippi. In turn this caused the Atchafalaya river to be formed and it was a distributary of the Mississippi river.

By 1778 the entrance to the Atchafalaya river was occluded by a logjam. Less than 70 years later a Captain by the name of Henty M. Shreve, who was the founder of Shreveport, New Orleans,
he Bayou Teche mocks the exact shape of the Mississippi River. This is a result of the Mississippi finding a steeper and shorter way to the gulf and taking that way until it only lightly flows into what is called the Bayou Teche instead of what is called the Bayou Teche being the main stream of the Mississippi. Around this time, the people that lived around the Mississippi were tribes of Indians like the Choctaw, the Tunica, the Osage, the Quapaw, and the Caddo’s. living beside or near the Mississippi was very common because the river provided food, water for the farms and crops, and of course water to drink. It was more efficient to live right beside the river because in that time people had to collect their drinking water in tubs, or buckets and in that time period they didn’t have cars obviously so there was no easy way to transfer the water from the river to the tribe besides walking it all the way there and it was just much more simple to live closer to the river so the Indians didn’t have to walk as far. Not only did the river provide the Indians with a source of water and food such as mussels, clams, and fish but it was also considered an easier means of travel. Instead of having to walk several miles or even several hundreds of miles, it was just easier to hop onto a small boat and row your way to the next tribe. This provided them with an easier way to trade or barter goods for other goods. It also meant that they could travel a couple hundred miles from one tribe to another, and if they were trading corn or tomatoes or any type of vegetable, they would not go bad before they got back to their own